Right on Tee / On the green or at the karaoke machine, South San Franciscogolfer knows the score

Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Friday, October 13, 2000

2000-10-13 04:00:00 PDT DALY CITY -- After winning hundreds of thousands of dollars in her first year as a professional golfer, Dorothy Delasin shopped. Then she shopped and shopped some more.

But the 20-year-old prodigy had a rather odd list. No clothes, no ritzy vacations, no fancy cars. Instead, she bought a gleaming home in a posh South San Francisco neighborhood with six bedrooms -- one for mom and dad, one for her and each of her three siblings, and one for grandma, who visits on the weekends.

She bought black leather couches and a big-screen television for the family room, brown suede sofas and a coffee table for the living room and five double beds with plush floral bedspreads and pillows for each. And for her little brother? A Sega Dreamcast system.

Naturally, she does plan to buy a little something for herself: A karaoke machine will fit nicely outside the kitchen. And the first song she'll cue up? Anything by the Supremes. Or maybe her all-time favorite, Kool and the Gang's "Celebration," which describes Dorothy's winning year on the golf course to a tee, so to speak.

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That's Delasin for you: calm, mature and level-headed, but with a splash of fun and innocence thrown in. The champ, who's competing in Vallejo's Samsung World Championship this weekend, is proud of herself, sure. ("I was like, 'No way! I did not just win this tournament!' " she said of her reaction after taking first place in July's Giant Eagle Classic, making her the youngest woman to win an LPGA tournament in 25 years.)

But she's also straightforward and never boastful. The cheery young woman, who is 5-foot-6 and recently had her long hair cut into a sophisticated bob, still gets a giggle out of the not-so-glamorous victory speech she gave after winning.

"I was crying, so nobody knew what I said," she laughed. "And my nose was bleeding for 20 minutes!"

Her mom, Salfe, had to step in to play nurse.

"They had to stop the ceremony, oh my!" Salfe said. "I had to squeeze myself through the people, run there and help her, because it was bleeding like crazy. Even when she was in the media room, she was holding her nose."

But that was just the beginning of the hubbub. Dorothy doesn't talk about it much, but her family tells of the overwhelming number of answering machine messages they had after returning from the tournament.

Several high-level officials from the Philippines -- her parents' native country -- called to congratulate her. Scads of reporters wanted interviews. Jesse Jackson phoned and plans to give her an award for her contribution to minority achievements in sports. But Dorothy didn't let the scores of well-wishers, including long-lost acquaintances, go to her head.

"Dude, I haven't heard from you in two years, and you just call up and say congratulations and want to hang out? No," Dorothy said, shaking her head.

She said her life hasn't changed too much. No, she hasn't gotten any sponsorships yet, although she's working on it. No, she's never been recognized by fans in the streets. No, she's never talked to Tiger Woods.

All that will come in time. For now, she's basking in the glory of recently being named the 2000 Rolex Rookie of the Year and earning enough money -- $316,862 for the season, ranking her 24th in earnings on the LPGA tour -- to move her family out of the two-bedroom Daly City rental in which she grew up.

"My mom's eyes were just glowing (when we moved)," Dorothy said. "It gave me a warm feeling inside. I'm a family person. I'd take a bullet for any of them, but first I'd make sure I have a will, so I could leave everything to them."

Likewise, Dorothy's golfing championships have always been a family affair. Salfe, 48, a supervisor at a dental clinic, travels with her to all her tournaments. Her siblings, Divina, 19, Dodisa, 14, and Arsenio Jr., 11, are some of her biggest fans.

But it's her dad, Arsenio (or Sonny), who plays the biggest role in his daughter's golfing career. He sold his carpet cleaning business to become her coach and caddy.

As her father knelt on the floor of the family's new living room, stapling golf medals onto a wooden board covered in velvet to display on the wall, he talked of Dorothy's wins -- speaking as if the whole family was out on the golf course.

"We beat the high-level players -- they are all veterans," he said proudly of the Giant Eagle Classic. "We got the Rookie of the Year already. We got the titles, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Junior -- you name it."

Sonny moved to the United States from Manila in 1979 and quickly fell in love with golf, teaching himself the sport. He first shared his hobby with Dorothy and Divina, another budding golf star who hopes to join the tour next year, when they were 8 and 7. He took them along to his job at a driving range, and the two girls became bored quickly. He suggested they take a few swings.

"I didn't think this would happen," Sonny said. "I just didn't want to pay a baby-sitter."

Dorothy soon became a golf addict, particularly admiring Nancy Lopez and Fred Couples. She won her first tournament -- the San Francisco City Juniors -- two years later and, as her dad describes it, "just kept winning and winning and winning." Sonny boasts that his best score, a 63, still beats his daughter's best score, a 65. ("He told me if I beat his score, he'll leave me alone," Dorothy groaned.)

With her father's coaching, Dorothy won the 1996 U.S. Junior and the 1999 U.S. Women's Amateur tournaments before turning pro last year. A framed photocopy of her first paycheck -- for $4,283 -- sits atop the family's refrigerator.

Dorothy is known for painting smiley faces on her golf balls, a quirky habit she developed when she was 12.

"It's a trademark," she said. "That way, if somebody finds a lost ball, they know it's mine!"

But it's not all golf, all the time for Dorothy. She reads philosophy books for fun, although some of her fellow rookies on the tour tried to get her into romance novels. ("I'd say, 'No way!' ") She also flips through her mother's dentistry books and admits she checks out people's toothbrushes when she visits their homes.

"Philosophy and dentistry -- OK, that's a weird combo!" she said.

But any seriousness is lost once Dorothy finds a karaoke machine. Known for hamming it up as she sings, she also loves shaking her groove thing at San Francisco's 18- and-over dance clubs, including City Lights.

"I should get that kind of attitude when I play golf," Dorothy said with a laugh. "Then they'd say, 'Oh, she's fun to watch!' Sometimes I keep a poker face."

Dorothy wouldn't look as good as she does on the dance floor without Divina's fashion consulting. Dorothy couldn't care less about clothes, and usually lounges in baggy athletic pants, casual tops and Hawaiian- style shell necklaces. ("Sometimes I'm in the mood to make her look nice, to help her out," Divina said.)

For now, Dorothy's on the dance floor without a boyfriend, although she says she's "looking." She doesn't care very much about looks, but does demand an outgoing personality.

"If we went out on a date, we'd sing karaoke," she said. "He has to know how to dance. He also has to have nice teeth."

The 1998 graduate of San Francisco's Washington High School devoted her school years to playing on the golf team, participating in tournaments and doing her homework. She said she didn't have any friends in high school, never kissed a boy and didn't attend the prom.

"I just didn't have time for it, I felt out of place," she said. "I'm glad I'm done with it. I just went there to do my thing -- go there, get my education and get out. That was pretty much it -- go to school, go to the course, go home."

Dorothy calls Lance Wong, the head golf pro at San Francisco's Lincoln Park course, where she practices, and his wife, Sandra, her two friends.

"There's a difference between friends and knowing somebody," she said. "So I just have two friends. I really pick carefully."

The same straightforward, no- nonsense behavior has helped her become a champ on the golf course.

"I'm an aggressive player," she said. "I go for it all the time. My dad says, 'Are you sure you can make that shot?' And I say, 'Yeah,' and I just whack it."

As for her goals, Dorothy would love to follow in the footsteps of Woods, both in his winning streak and his philanthropy.

"That would be really cool if I could accomplish what he did, even just come close," she said. "I want to become a really good role model and get a lot of young girls into the sport. I want to get the LPGA more publicity. I think I can do it. I'll work extra hard this off-season."

She may go to college at some point, but doesn't have time for it now. She wants to live with her family in their new home for the foreseeable future.

"I'll probably move out in a few years for relationship purposes -- to be with the guy with the nice teeth," she said.

And she also wants to sleep better. Some nights, she lies in bed for hours before drifting off.

And with the year she's having, it's hard to believe she'd want to miss a moment.

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